Buying With The Mayor's Help?

[seathrift]

Sell Overseas Property

Good advice Owain. The OP post should have a headline "yet another disaster in the making"!

[Hippyboy]

Sell Overseas Property

I've yet to hear of a really good mayor , although i suppose there must be some somewhere . generally speaking however , the stories are about fingers in pies . The Kmet of Rusalya , where I live , doesn't even live there , He doesn't wan't people Knocking on his door . Tim .

[cruicky50]

Sell Overseas Property

The mayor in our village is a nice lady who will do anything to help, we go to her for help on number of thing to do with our business, on our opening day six years ago she organised the clean up of the area around our place, gave us a woman to help in the bar, organised dancers and singers as well as a number of other things, what did it cost - nothing, we ended up donating to the schools in the village, a couple of dvd players. Since then she has kept us up to date with the rules and regs for running our business.
Don't tar all the mayers with the same brush.

[Hippyboy]

Sell Overseas Property

First of all cruicky50 I didn't , I said that there must me some good ones somewhere . Secondly , apparerrently the previous mayor of Rusalya was a nice lady , but she stripped the half-derilect church of it's antique contents (to look after it , and protect it from the elements ) and then allegedly flogged the lot . Also my dealings with our current mayor have been great ,and there have been improvements to the village centre since I've been living here , but other villagers allege all kinds of stuff . Sometimes you need to look beneath the surface . Tim .

[cruicky50]

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Sorry hippyboy that was not aimed at you, i was only pointing out that not all mayers are bad people. Some can be very helpful so the initial poster is not off his rocker, i agree he will have to be vigilant.

[OldHolborn]

Sell Overseas Property

Naturally I will be vigilant and yes, I do expect him to add his margin. I am not "investing" - I am buying somewhere to live and enjoy a simpler lifestyle, do not seek employment and will not be reliant on others

As explained, I am heading for villages in the ethnic turkish areas of the Rhodopes, not the ex pat havens. The further I can stay away from them, the better.

[owain]

Sell Overseas Property

No, not all Mayors are bad but you have to be as vigilant in dealing with them as anyone else in Bulgaria. But just because they are public servants, doesn't mean that you are protected anymore, which the OP seems to think. In fact if you deal with a bad one, you're probably less protected.

[millomgirl]

Sell Overseas Property

I guess you don't speak Bulgarian, so when it all goes pear shaped who will be to blame.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster

No, I don't speak Bulgarian, just English, German and French. Hence I will hire a translator, not the bloke who speaks a little bit of German or English and owes the Mayor money.

I am well aware how Mayors become elected and how much "influence" they can exert when required to. Let's just say he will know it is in his interest to keep the deal clean

Suffice to say that I would rather trust a local than "Keith" from Ebay who burned his bridges to the UK, has nowhere else to run to and will do anything to anyone to raise the necessary funds to eat this winter. Just from these forums alone, it would appear there are plenty like Keith, ready to sell their grandmothers to niaive Brits. I may be wrong of course, but Bulgaria does have a reputation of being a "last chance saloon" for those who could not hack legitimate business in the UK or are *cough* "unwelcome" on the Costa Brava.

I'll say no more

There are also many Bulgarians, Mayors included, who would be willing to sell their grandmothers to naive Brits, or to anyone else who comes up with the money! Yes, Mayors can be useful, but if I were you I would shop around. There are many decent estate agents in Bulgaria, without having to resort to ebay, but don't automatically assume that all Mayors are honest. Or anyone else, come to that! Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware.

[OldHolborn]

Sell Overseas Property

Must admit, I'm amused by the amount of "property agents" advising me to buy through "property agents".

If anything, this whole forum would suggest the exact opposite.

[B52]

Sell Overseas Property

OldHolborn said…

Must admit, I'm amused by the amount of "property agents" advising me to buy through "property agents".

What? Three (one twice) out of 15 posts (other than yours) and none of them advising you to do that. Ahhh…unless of course they have been PM’ing you.